Under the vast canopy of stars she dances, arms in open embrace and head thrown back in ecstasy. She twirls and twirls, leaving creation in her wake, stirred up by her billowing veils of love and beauty.

She embraces all that has become and dances for the journey of every being, generating light to illuminate, to lift, to sing in hearts heavy.

And where she touches another, light bursts forth from a pinpoint. This light generated by loving connection becomes a seed which grows and spirals in a dance of its own. To its own music, to its own journey of joy and sorrow, ecstasy of pain and beauty. The dance that embraces us all and carries us ever onward in a beautiful life.

You are a mother in a Navaho community and you are laying in your bed. It is early and no one else is stirring. The dawn light is heralded by the morning birds, at first in a soft whisper, and you lay under your covers thinking about the day ahead.

You’ve woken with a list of all your responsibilities for the day running through your head. It seems at times that your days are merely a portion of time offered to you for these responsibilities to be addressed, and that there must be more time on offer to do the other things you want. There is a list of those too, but there doesn’t always seem to be the opportunity to achieve them. These are things that don’t ‘need’ to be done for daily existence, but things that will fulfill you and excite you, things that will support your own wellbeing, and things that will benefit your family and community. 


In the past you’ve made promises to yourself about becoming a bigger voice in your community, about being a great example to your sisters, about enjoying more of your daily life and learning new ideas and skills. It seems though, each year you have made these promises the early excitement of the ideas fade, and the ability to commit feels harder as time goes by and in the end your days unfold just as they always have.

Not this time. Suddenly you cannot lay in bed dreaming of things to be any more. You rise and open the door to your family home, walking outside in your bare feet. Standing there in the middle of your community you seek the Great Mother with a ritual, greeting her and asking for her guidance.

Walking around silently you are aware of the earth beneath your feet. You sink down and dig your fingers into the earth. This is the soil in which you have used your hands to work, fertilize, and plant seeds for future harvests. The earth now whispers to you:”Why are you not planting the seeds of the promises you have made to yourself? Your ideas and desires could grow into something bigger that will nourish us all!”

You crouch by the stream for a drink and she whispers to you: “Why do you resist the flow of creativity? Be open to change and the obstacles that lie in your way will be easy to pass!”

Rising now, you stretch your body slowly and feel the strength in your limbs. Likewise the green forest branches around wave at you and their leaves speak: “You have strength in your roots and from strong foundations great things can grow. Trust in your ability to transform the light into beauty and nourishment.”

The morning birds who were so contentedly and quietly talking about the day ahead sense your determination and call in earnest to you: :”Run to your dreams, catch them and make them real in your hands!”

And so you run. Slowly at first, and then you feel the strength in your limbs, and the determination in your heart to reach your dreams powers you towards the sun, that is now beginning to rise. You run through the green forest, keeping the day’s quiet soft sun in your sights and moving easily around the obstacles in your path. You run until you leave the forest and are now on the grassy plains. You run until the morning sun grow strong and bright in the sky and you can feel the first rays of warmth.

And then you stop.

You stretch out your arms towards the sun and pull the rays into you. Strings of solar energy filling you with inspiration to get things started, wisdom to plan the way forward, strength to keep moving, resilience to step over obstacles … your body is glowing as you pull the rays of light and warmth into and around your body and you stand there, arms outstretched, absorbing all the solar energy the sun has to offer …

…gradually you feel filled. You have run towards the sun, and now filled with solar energy you must walk towards your dreams and each step takes you closer. The promises you have made to yourself for this year have formed clearly in your mind and as you turn to face the direction you came from you see the path before you unfold. You can see that each part of the way presents a different part of the journey towards achieving your dreams. Every step takes you closer. You can clearly see your path and, taking a breath, you take your first step.

I am calling her Sunni Chalahn. Chalahn means rainbow in the language of the Wangeriburra, which is the language group of the local Yugumbeh region that I live in. I called her that because I am hoping to see both the sun AND a rainbow soon because all we’ve had is rain rain rain for the last few days. Not just sprinkles. Steady, unrelenting rain.

Today the water in our local area rose so much that Mudgeeraba has just about disappeared under a lake of flowing brown water. It’s very exciting and it is tempting to go and have a look, which is not really advised in crazy weather, but having said that we did have a sneak peak at our local creek.  This road is now cut off at both ends. Lucky for us these creeks empty as quickly as they overflow. Today my plans were to take the kids to GOMA (the Gallery of Modern Art) in Brisbane but it just didn’t feel like a good idea when I learned that at least three roads between our house and the M1 were closed due to flooding.

So today was a home day, which meant Leggo, stories, fixing up some dry space for my poor sodden chickens – and finishing the crochet on Sunni Chalahn’s dress whilst thinking sunny thoughts. The sun hasn’t come out, but the rain has stopped finally, although it doesn’t sound like it because the gully below my house, usually dry, is roaring with the volume of water rushing through it.

Bach to Sunni Chalahn though – she is this week’s giveaway at Lavendilly House on facebook. She’s pretty excited about it. You can enter too, if you want to take her home. This is what you do:

1) LIKE Lavendilly House on Facebook

2) Comment or put your name under the photo album featuring Sunni Chalahn

3) Share her photo album on your facebook page and ask your friend to Like Lavendilly House because you get another entry every time someone says you referred them

You have until Monday 30th january, 8am to enter – and then I will announce who Sunni Chalahn’s new family will be.

Good luck!

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image sourced from http://badinfluence90.deviantart.com/?offset=15

Blessed time! when we are sitting,
I and thou,
With two forms and only one soul,
I and thou.
Fragrance, song of birds, they quicken ev’rything
When we come into the garden,
I and thou.
All the stars of heaven hurry
to see us,
And we show them our own moon,
I and thou-
I and thou without words, without
I and thou-
In delight we are united,
I and thou.
Sugar chew the heaven’s parrots
in that place
Where we’re sitting, laughing sweetly,
I and thou.
Strange that I and thou together
in this nook
Are apart a thousand miles, see-
I and thou.
One form in this dust, the other
in that land.
Sweet eternal Paradise there…
I and thou.

the lagoon where the water is always perfect

The best thing about having only two children with me was that I could actually relax! They didn’t want me to play with them this morning (and I was ok with that!) so I set myself up in the shade with my knitting and only had to look up every now and then to make sure I could still count two familiar  hats amongst all the kids in the park. Everybody wins Before we went home we took the bikes on the path that leads around to the surf beach, and then back past the coffee shop (very convenient for those who cannot do playground duty without the aid of caffeine!).

blood sugar a bit low by this point - riding in a straight line was challenging.

I like this place. It is close to the surf, but for little ones you can swim in the still waters of the lagoon. The park itself is pretty well designed: there are lots to climb on, a super fast slippery slide (particularly with wet togs on!). There is a pirate cave and big rocks with crosses on them showing where you can dig up some treasure in the sand. The hull of the pirate ship has a place to keep prisoners, and the deck of the ship has percussion built-in as a feature so you can plonk out a pirate jig (sort of)

digging for treasure, and finding bones!

There is a shade sail over the playground, but to my mind it isn’t enough. There are a few covered picnic tables … but I’d really like to see a few more shady places.I realised that I’ve mostly been to this park on overcast days, and in summer hats and suncream are still necessary but in the bright sun it is a scorcher. This morning was lovely though, and enough of a recharge to help me stay positive through the meltdown I can see coming from one of my children this afternoon!! I’m seeing the signs!

One of the wonderful gifts was a little pink shirt with an oriental collar, pearly buttons and butterflies machine embroidered on it. Rosella is neither here nor there about it, but I love it and I felt really sad when I found that it had been tossed off the verandah onto a part of our garage floor that we hardly visited, and sat in a puddle for probably two weeks. I washed it and soaked it and scrubbed it and it mostly came good except for a big brown stain on the back. The stain didn’t bother my daughter because she couldn’t see it, but I could!

Not ready to toss the shirt, and not able to pass it on to anyone with a big stain on it, I decided to cover it.

I could have cut out a patch in some nice fabric and machine stitched it on, but NO – I decided to embroider an elaborate and very large butterfly – much larger than the stain!!

Fortunately about the time I was taken with idea, we were spending the weekend at my parents place, where the kids disappeared and happily played and pottered about – and I had the opportunity to virtually disappear behind my embroidery, not emerging until the butterfly could stretch it’s pretty wings. I found mum’s book of crewel embroidery stitches and tried out some new ones. The butterfly’s body is made with cretan stitch, and the wings have chain stitch, long and short blanket stitch, french knots and a few woven spider webs (my new favourite embroidery trick!).

Now do I hear you say “I wish I could embroider”? No excuses! Embroidery is great because it is work you can take with you anywhere, and do a bit at a time. You can trace a picture you like or draw one of your own, and then choose which stitches to use. Crewel embroidery is very flexible, has no rules and you can learn new stitches easily with online tutorials. Even youtube have embroidery tutorials. You can make anything beautiful when you know a few basic stitches.

image sourced from http://www.gardenvisit.com/history_theory/library_online_ebooks/ml_gothein_history_garden_art_design/small_egyptian_gardens

With just three stitches my grandmother embroidered a massive copy of this Egyptian picture of the garden of a high official of Amenhotep. My grandfather copied the design and sketched it out for her onto the fabric and she embroidered it. It now hangs in my parents house and I love looking at it. So simple and so amazing!

On a much smaller scale, I have a new long-term embroidery project. My friend gave me a pair of camouflage print shorts and even though I am not a fan of wearing camouflage I kept them because they actually fit me (a rare occurence! I never pass up clothes that actually fit!) so I am making them pretty with embroidery. Will show you what I’ve done with them when I’m finished … or maybe before then because who knows when that will be!!

Look! Linden is taller than the Q1 building!

I seem to have a talent for finding really hot houses to live in. Our last one was dreadful, even once the insulation was put in. This one we are in now is a steamer inside, despite being located in amongst rainforest trees. Finally summer has turned the heat up and here we are in this sweatbox with six grumpy kids (we share with another family) – and actually it is much more pleasant to be outside, except we can’t be out for long because of the darn sun, those crazy UV rays, and our fair skin.

So we hang out on the verandah or in our rooms with the fans on and think of places to go for a swim.

Yesterday it was Evandale Lake at Bundall, just behind the Gold Coast Arts Centre. We had so much fun we went back this afternoon. Honestly, this place has everything going for it: parking (but don’t park in the staff car park or you might get a ticket!), a fenced play park, toilets with showers, picnic shelters, bbqs, shady trees, a still and clean salt water lake (with fish!), a clean beach, a bike track, an outdoor exercise circuit, public outdoor art (including one by our own Antone Bruinsma that I always stop to think about), and of course there is the art gallery right there too.

In the afternoon the lake has warmed up and it is like swimming in a gigantic bath. The kids like the shallowness of the water by the shore, and the dip to the deep water is so gradual that they have got plenty of room to swim and play confidently in water level of water they feel comfortable in. Even my 18 month old is happy to go walking in up to her chin because she knows she can just turn around and walk back out again. It has been a wonderful place for cautious swimmers to begin feeling confident in the water.

Yesterday we swam on our boogie boards right across the lake. It was a long way and our legs got tired from all that kicking! My son zoomed ahead like a speed boat and waited, looking very cool, for us to slowly kick our way over to him before he powered back to the other side. The trip back was easy for my four-year old, and her six-year-old cousin …. they hung on while I pulled them.

Outdoor art the kids can play on. This one is irresistible for running on!

Our standard method of enjoying this park is to go in the afternoon and bring dinner. The kids play until they get hungry, then we dry off, get changed and eat, then play in the park until they looked pooped enough to go home. There are bbqs, but early evening hunger can’t wait for anything, so we find it best to bring dinner pre-cooked. Usually it is sausages and salad. Tonight it was pizza.

On that note I have always considered pizza the challenge I need to overcome in cooking because just about EVERY part of it includes ingredients my tummy doesn’t like: nightshades, grains, yeast, sugar, cheese. I’ve made great gluten-free, nightshade-free, dairy-free pizzas before but today I’ve made a great grain-free pizza base. In fact I think it was MUCH tastier than the gluten-free base I made for everyone else. And easier to make. Essentially it is the same as the cracker recipe I like to make, except I used almonds instead of pepitas this time. No photo, sorry … we ate it. Here is a photo of Rosella eating the last of it though – but pizza is  generally very pizza-looking. No surprises there.

GRAIN-FREE PIZZA BASE

1 cup activated almonds

1 cup activated sunflower seeds

1 egg

pinch of salt

2 tbs oil/ghee ( I like the flavour of ghee over olive oil)

Whizz up the almonds and sunflower seeds into a meal in your food processor. (thermomix speed 9, about 15 seconds) Add the rest of your ingredients and whizz again to form a dough. With damp fingers, spread the dough evenly over a baking sheet on a tray and pre-cook at 180C until it looks firm and is just starting to go brown (but don’t actually let it go brown!). Spread your toppings on and put the tray back into the oven until pizza smells fantastic or until you think it is done.

I was avoiding nightshades for a long time, so I do like to use homemade pesto as a base instead of tomato paste, however tonight’s toppings were a tomato base (with garlic and fresh basil added), olives, pineapple pieces, capsicum, sun-dried tomatoes, grated zucchini and goats fetta sprinkled on top.

Do you know what else is nice on top of pizzas instead of copious amounts of mozzarella or cheddar (bleh!)? Labne. This is a cream cheese made by hanging up yogurt in a cheesecloth or loose-weave tea towel and letting the whey drip out over night. In the morning you have a bowl or very useful whey (don’t throw this out!) and lovely tangy cream cheese spread. So yummy, labne is great on its own instead of butter, or for adding to dips, spreading on toast or crackers with toppings – and dolloped on pizzas! Whats more it is a living food (particularly if your yogurt is made from raw milk) full of great probiotic goodness.

I am excited! Our first Sacred Essence Women’s Circle has crept up on us and it is THIS WEEK!

Our monthly women’s circle is going to be held on Thursday evening this year – every SECOND THURSDAY of the month. Mark those Thursdays in your calendar now, so that you can plan to come, particularly if you need to arrange some babysitting.

Every day is a great day to set new intentions and goals – however there are times of the year that just seem to call out for the broad vision – a clear description of where we want to be by the end of the year and how we are going to get there. Everyone needs to do this. I am not talking about resolutions. New Years resolutions have never worked out for me, because just saying “I am going to do this” makes you feel great at the time, and inspired for a few weeks, but unless you have a plan in place to help you achieve that, then how do you keep the momentum?

One of my favourite quotes is ‘will power, like the brain, is like a muscle – it is strengthened with exercise’. I am not sure where I heard that but it is a reminder that stating our dreams and visions is the first step, but unless you take a step every day you can’t walk towards that vision.

So this will be our focus for our first circle of the year, and we’ll be doing this creatively within a reflection of the energy, inspiration and passion that the SUN brings to us. After our program of yoga, meditation, story and reflection we’ll be playing with collage – creating our own beautiful sun mandalas as a visual representation of our intentions for this year. Do you have some burning desires that need your focus? Do you have a lack of passion that needs firing with energy? Do you (like me!) have too many wonderful ideas for this year that need some focus? Come and join us, come and play in the company of women and sacred ceremony. This one is for you!

Go to Sacred Essence for more details and to follow our sacred work with women.

SACRED ESSENCE JANUARY CIRCLE

Silkwood School Moonlight Prep Room

39 Shepherd Hill Lane, Mt Nathan, Gold Coast

7:00 – 9:00 pm,

$20 or $45 for three sessions

My beautiful friend Renee started a yearly tradition for our old mother’s group, and her family: the Fete des Rois, held on the 6th January every year. It means Festival of the Kings and is a celebration of the 12th day of Christmas, and the arrival of the three kings.

I love traditions between friends. What has been so lovely with this one is that we have met and made new friendships with members of Renee’s family and church, and although most of us from our mother’s group are not aligned with any particular religious background we all enjoy this festival for the community we feel in each other’s presence.

In the past we have dressed up, played games, danced, sung carols around the piano, but out of necessity this year was a bit more casual. Always though, we have celebrated with the galette – a cake baked by Renee. This year the recipe was a gluten-free one from the region of Brittany in France (recipe please Renee!)

Adorned in party clothes, and the odd cape and crown we met at a park and picnicked. When it came time to cut the galette cake Renee’s daughter hid under the table and called out the names of the children who would receive the next slice of cake. If you find the feve in your slice you are the new King or Queen for the year! This year Renee used a date as the feve and hid it in the cake to be found by … Ned!

The feve is hidden inside the galette!

And so reigning King Max (in absentia) and Queen Inge-Marie handed over their crowns to Ned, and his chosen royal partner Frida. This is Frida’s second year as reigning queen! Please excuse the fuzzy photo!

And here is the newest prince at his first Fete des Rois, dressed in his first royal cape:

There has been some of this:

beaches, creeks, swimming pools - water seems to be the key to happiness in summer!

and some of this:

These three can spend hours shifting rocks ... I seriously considered giving them rocks for Christmas

lots of this:

pottering about at home

and a bit of this:

Red Riding Hood is loving the variety of public parks at the Gold Coast